Cops know one of the most dangerous calls is “a domestic,” that is, a domestic dispute. It can be just as dangerous for friends and relatives who, with the best of all possible intentions, attempt to helpfully intervene. I made that point in this article.

Oh, and the lead photo here. It illustrates that, as in the linked case study, a single little .380 round can cast an awfully long shadow.

14 COMMENTS

    • TRUE! A history teacher pointed out to the class that, Gavrilo Princip’s assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, and Sophie, and her unborn child, touched off WWI. The Versailles Treaty at the end of WWI led to WWII. WWII led to the Cold War, which led to the space program.

      I think Time Magazine called Einstein the Man of the Century, meaning the XXth Century, but it could have been Gavrilo Princip.

  2. With police training going downhill from early retirements, department desperation, etc. I feel THE most dangerous call for officers AND suspects is a one on one! The foot chases being the worst, especially for minor infractions like running from a traffic stop. Whenever someone says………….. “but backup was too far away”…

    • Police officers need an expert duty partner, just as fighter pilots need a loyal wingman (or wing-person?). I know that my solo peace officer father was wise to join forces regularly with a trusted, similarly solo officer from a neighboring town. Working together they seemed about a magnitude safer, especially when a domestic situation developed. Much safer for everyone, especially the public, when two or more officers work together thusly in the moment. We need to maintain enough funding today more than ever to sustain and train adequate staffing.

  3. I was lucky to survive a Domestic in December 1994. He had threatened twice to kill me. Once he was holding a pistol point blank at my face. Another he threatened to crush my skull with the butt of his rifle. He had broken out the glass from the back patio door and walked in. He almost killed our then 9-year-old daughter by shooting towards her bedroom. A bullet did graze a hair on her head. When I learned this happened when she told me I hugged her tight and we both cried. I was lucky that I had a chance to call 911 just before he cut the phone line, and the phone went dead. S.W.A.T. did a great job to get me and my daughter to be safe. It was a LONG legal battle to get my freedom and to get the harassment by him and his mother to stop. It was an expensive fight. I felt so relieved when I learned that the DA was Fred Hugi. The man who convicted Diane Downs.

  4. Domestics are indeed nasty. I was an original board member and volunteered with our local family violence agency, working hotline and as an advocate. For years I could list every business in town which was open 24 hours and public enough to safely rendezvous with someone. Before we could set up our own shelter, I drove several women to the nearest alternatives. The one I remember was 18 years old, had a toddler, a newborn, and was again pregnant.
    We did NOT do the heavy lifting of intervention, and I regularly prayed for the officers who did.

    • larryarnold,

      Your story reminded me of the time I was listening to Bob Grant on the radio in the 1990s. One caller told Bob he once met a 24-year-old grandmother in NYC.

  6. I was a police officer for 40 years in Savannah And Statesboro Georgia. I always worked the street. And I saw and done it all except be shot or shoot someone. There was three incidents where either a gun was pulled on me or some tried to get my gun.
    What they all had in common was that they were all domestics.

  7. Mr. Ayoob, I recall that you had an article recently warning of an impending ammo shortage. But I cannot find it. Can anyone assist with a link? Thanks in advance.

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